Feedback and Suggestions for Mojave Build Upgrade

[hackintoshhelp2020]

Hi there. I am currently on Mojave 10.14.5 and more and more sites and programs are telling me nothing under 10.15 will be supported. Safari stopped working on a ton of sites long ago, Plex as well, Chrome just popped up the other day saying no more upgrades, etc. This computer used to be my daily driver, Plex server, and security center, and now it's just a Plex server as my M1 Mac Mini does my daily driver stuff. I am looking to do 1 more upgrade and then be done with it since this isn't my daily driver anymore and I just don't have the time to keep up with constant upgrades (clearly, since I'm still on 10.14.5). I've been purely Mac since 2008 so keeping a Hackintosh would be nice, but it's not a hard requirement anymore.

I'm on an 8700k, NO DEDICATED GRAPHICS CARD, Broadcom 20702B0 for bluetooth and Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 for wifi. I believe both my bluetooth and wifi card are no longer supported after another version or 2 of macOS. I have a z370 board as well and am on Clover still.

Option 1: Take this build as far as it will go with the current hardware. I'm not actually sure what that is at the moment, but my guess is 10.15 or 10.16.

Option 2: Spend $100 or whatever it is to get an upgraded wifi and bluetooth card and get upgraded to Ventura.

Option 3: I'm not even sure if this is really an option, but give up the bluetooth and wifi capabilities since this computer uses hardwired internet, hardwired mouse, and hardwired keyboard. I don't use handoff or anything anymore either. Then still take it as far OS-wise as I can without those things.

Option 4: Just convert it to Windows and call it a day. I'll have support for Plex and web browsers for as long as I probably ever want it. Upgrades won't require me to research them first and do a full system backup just in case.

Option 5: Keep it how it is knowing any day now Plex app can end support fully, and then see if I even care to do anything with it again. By then I very well may just buy a new daily driver Mac Mini or iMac and stick my Plex hard drives into an external enclosure or something.

Curious what others think. Are any of the options just straight up not happening, or more hassle then they're worth?

 

[trs96]

UHD 630 supports Metal 3 and even Ventura. You could upgrade to that right now. Not sure if your wifi and BT is supported in Ventura. If not, it's very easy to upgrade those. I think one last upgrade is in order before you move to some other OS.

Chrome just popped up the other day saying no more upgrades, etc.

On the official Google Chrome page it says HS and Mojave are still supported. I think it ends later this year.

 

[hackintoshhelp2020]

Not sure if your wifi and BT is supported in Ventura. If not, it's very easy to upgrade those. I think one last upgrade is in order before you move to some other OS.

I'm almost positive one or both isn't. Months ago I looked at the OpenCore documentation and realized they weren't and put upgrades to both in my Amazon cart. I can't imagine I would have done that if I hadn't verified my card were the ones that didn't work anymore. If I remember right, my cards are from 2012 models I think, so they were supported for quite a while.

I have an unused SSD that used to have my High Sierra hackintosh on it before I wiped it. Maybe if I can find some time soon I'll try Ventura on it and see what happens

 

[Middleman]

Well your system if you decide to keep it still has much life left TBH for another few years. It has an 8th gen Intel Core chip so is still being supported by macOS. You could even run the latest Sonoma if you wish.

Whilst the Intel Core IGPU will still work with the latest versions of macOS up to Ventura, if you decide you want a little more power graphics wise you could fit it with a AMD RX6600, RX6800 or 6900XT dGPU. That will give you a few more years of use for sure. You could also add in a 10GBe PCIe card upgrade if you wish.

Also I think it is totally worthwhile going over to Opencore. Honestly it is far more flexible and reliable than Clover (imo). The Dortania guide is not so hard to learn (it has guides for every motherboard gen), and you could try to build a test EFI on an external USB flash drive & SSD to see how it works (for example).

 

[hackintoshhelp2020]

You could even run the latest Sonoma if you wish.

Thought about this and I may consider it if there's no major updates Hackintosh wise. If, for some weird reason, common kexts need massively refactored to work, I'll probably just stick with Ventura. Also depends on exactly when Sonoma launches. It could make for a good winter time project.

if you decide you want a little more power graphics wise you could fit it with a AMD RX6600, RX6800 or 6900XT dGPU.

Will probably skip graphics cards since I don't think there's a single thing I do that would benefit from it (not currently running into any issues without one, so ROI seems low if not 0).

Also I think it is totally worthwhile going over to Opencore. Honestly it is far more flexible and reliable than Clover (imo).

That is the plan. The only reason it's currently on Clover is because back then OpenCore didn't exist, or at least wasn't ever recommended if it did exist in 2019.

and you could try to build a test EFI on an external USB flash drive & SSD to see how it works (for example).

That's also the plan. I have a Samsung 970 with 10.14.5 on it and a Samsung 960 sitting idle that I had used for my High Sierra Hackintosh.

 

[Middleman]

Thought about this and I may consider it if there's no major updates Hackintosh wise. If, for some weird reason, common kexts need massively refactored to work, I'll probably just stick with Ventura. Also depends on exactly when Sonoma launches. It could make for a good winter time project.


Will probably skip graphics cards since I don't think there's a single thing I do that would benefit from it (not currently running into any issues without one, so ROI seems low if not 0).


That is the plan. The only reason it's currently on Clover is because back then OpenCore didn't exist, or at least wasn't ever recommended if it did exist in 2019.


That's also the plan. I have a Samsung 970 with 10.14.5 on it and a Samsung 960 sitting idle that I had used for my High Sierra Hackintosh.

Sure. Ventura should work with your system. It isn't that difficult to convert from Clover. The Dortania guide covers most of the systems and issues and any required patches or SSDTs for your board or config.

If there's any consolation I found an exact build for your system under Opencore 0.6.3 here that works with Big Sur > https://github.com/huongdp/Hackintosh. I believe you can use that directly as well use it as a general guide on what the structure of the EFI build should look like.

IMO this build can easily be updated to the latest version of Opencore if you use one of the newer config tools such as OCAT (OC Auxiliary Tool) or Opencore Configurator (if editing plists manually is not your thing). Although the OC and kext auto-update function of OCAT is very useful I'd still do manual checks of the EFI folder to see if the correct files have been updated in case the auto-update doesn't work. When you start OCAT for example, it lists the version of Opencore it has been built for in the top left corner of the menu. If it doesn't match the latest version you are using ie. OC 0.9.3 then you need to select the Upgrade Opencore and Kexts button at the top, select the Latest Version from the drop down menu that follows and then hit the Get Opencore button. That will update the app.

The most crucial part of updating OC is making sure that you use the latest files from the same date of its release. When you download the Opencore (Release) package we usually only require what's inside the X64 folder. In the standalone EFI folder that we build, OC and Boot folders MUST be present as well as the relevant folders and efi files. The ACPI folders should contain at minimum SSDT-EC-USBX.aml and SSDT-PLUG.aml and the Drivers folder should contain (at minimum) OpenRuntime.efi, OpenCanopy.efi and OpenHFSPlus.efi. For kexts, Lilu, Whatevergreen, VirtualSMC, AppleALC, SMCProcessor, SMCSuperIO and a customised USB map kext like USBPort or USBMap are pretty much mandatory (as is the Resources folder which contains images & icons or OC). If you need Bluetooth or Wifi you will need to look at adding Airportitlwm.kext and/or IntelBluetoothfirmware, IntelBTPatcher and Bluetoolfixup.kext from the OpenIntelWireless and BrcmPatchRam Githubs. For Tools I usually have ones like OpenControl.efi, OpenShell.efi and ResetSystem.efi. ResetSystem is a useful tool especially if you are a building an EFI and the changes you've made to the config.plist aren't appearing, as it resets the startup cache.

 

[wstrohm]

That's also the plan. I have a Samsung 970 with 10.14.5 on it and a Samsung 960 sitting idle that I had used for my High Sierra Hackintosh.

My "Mini-ITX 3" (Z370 running High Sierra) and "Mini-ITX 4" (Z390 running Mojave 10.14.6) both use Samsung 970 Pro SSDs. I have found that if upgraded beyond Big Sur, boot times go from around 19-20 seconds up to about 1 minute. This is due to a TRIM problem with APFS. No such problem with HFS+ which I currently use on both computers. Just FYI.

 

[hackintoshhelp2020]

If there's any consolation I found an exact build for your system under Opencore 0.6.3 here that works with Big Sur > https://github.com/huongdp/Hackintosh. I believe you can use that directly as well use it as a general guide on what the structure of the EFI build should look like.

That's a great find. I had seen some people saying they have this build upgraded to more recent OS's but none linking files or going in depth like this. Seems I'd just need one small change for iGPU instead of dedicated and that could possibly be it.

IMO this build can easily be updated to the latest version of Opencore if you use one of the newer config tools such as OCAT (OC Auxiliary Tool) or Opencore Configurator (if editing plists manually is not your thing).

Not familiar with OCAT but will check it out. Thanks for that suggestion as well

I have found that if upgraded beyond Big Sur, boot times go from around 19-20 seconds up to about 1 minute. This is due to a TRIM problem with APFS. No such problem with HFS+

Good to note. This computer only reboots if there's a power failure and I shut it off before the UPS runs out, so not super worried about that. During setup I might have some back-and-forth to make sure I've got all the server related things setup the same, but that's minor overall as well.